Jack Frames, of Ballston Lake, the Director of Environmental Health for Schenectady County, on his bicycle for Schenectady County’s Fourth Annual Pedal-Paddle-Run Triathlon at Collins Park in Scotia on Saturday, September 13, 2014. Photo by Patrick Dodson/Gazette photographer

By NED CAMPBELL
Gazette Reporter

SCOTIA — Dom DiCarlo, Jack Frame and Peggy O’Connor’s team name for Saturday’s Pedal-Paddle-Run Triathlon in Scotia was simple enough: 475 and a Girl.

“That’s our combined weights, plus a girl,” said DiCarlo, the environmental health senior sanitarian for Schenectady County, who took on the paddling portion of the triathlon.

Team names ranged from joking to serious to the irreverent at the fourth annual triathlon hosted by Schenectady County. Eighty-nine people competed in the triathlon, which started and ended at Collins Park and took participants on a 7.5-mile bike ride through Scotia and Glenville; a 5K run through the village; and a 1.6-mile paddle, or two laps, around Collins Lake.

DiCarlo’s team could have also been named the public health team, as Frame is the county’s environmental health director and O’Connor is an early intervention case manager.

“We’re very fortunate that we’re able to do something like this and participate,” said Joanne Cocozzoli, director of public health for the county, who volunteered Saturday. “It fits with what we try to do in public health, which is to promote activity.”

Steve and Theresa Healey of Niskayuna had their own cause to promote. Their team name: Fail the Common Core. Or something like that.

“Actually, it’s Flunk the Common Core,” said Steve Healey, who ran and then joined his wife in a kayak for the last leg.

“No, it’s Fail the Common Core,” said his son, James, 7.

“We’re turning this into a small protest against the direction our education system is taking,” his father said.

In 2012, their team name was Ban Fracking; in 2013 it was Power to the Peaceful.

“There’s always a message,” Steve Healey said. “A message that hopefully can bring everyone to a better place because America is a great country, but it could be better.”